Jim Waldman Challenges New House Speaker’s Appointment

BY BUDDY NEVINS


A Broward Democratic House member is challenging the appointment of State Rep. Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, as the new House Speaker.

State Rep. Jim Waldman of Coconut Creek, who monitors the House rules for House Democrats, said Friday that Cretul must be elected, not appointed.

 

Waldman

 

“Any permanent successor must be elected, said Waldman, the Democrat’s Rules Liaison.  “Those are the rules.

Waldman will bring his views to a meeting of the Democratic House caucus next week.

If the 44 House Democrats agree with Waldman, they would formally call for an election. 

Whatever the Democrats do, they won’t elect one of their own as speaker.  There are approximately two Republicans for every Democrat in the House.

So all the Democrats can really do is make noise and bad publicity for the GOP.

 
Speakers are normally elected by the 120 House members, and Cretul’s automatic elevation to the post is highly unusual.

It was triggererd by House Speaker Ray Sansom, who stepped down Friday amid a growing scandal.  Sansom said in a statement that Cretul, who is the Speaker Pro Tem, would replace him.

Cretul was expected to fill the remainder of Sansom’s term.

Waldman said that unless Cretul serves only temporarily, the House rules mandate a new election.  He believes that Cretul’s job is not temporary if he intends to serve through the whole session.

 “The question is whether we will recognize Cretul as the speaker without an election, Waldman said.

If the Republicans call an election for speaker,  it could trigger a  free-for-all for leadership of the House just weeks before the 2009 March-April session is set to open.

There is no guarantee that Republican House members would elect Cretul speaker.  State political blogs say other Republicans have already begun quietly jockeying for the powerful job.

 



3 Responses to “Jim Waldman Challenges New House Speaker’s Appointment”

  1. A Real Democrat says:

    Jim Waldman is trying to rehabilitate himself after trying to make the sheriff’s office non-partisan. That would have hurt the Democrats. Now he is trying to be a real Democrat. He has a long way to go

  2. Broward voter says:

    If Jim Waldman is concerned about rules, why doesn’t he actually live in his district?

  3. I. P. Freely says:

    Waldman is wrong. The house rules that he and the other democrats voted for say that: “The Speaker pro tempore shall exercise
    the duties, powers, and prerogatives of the Speaker in the event of the Speaker’s
    death, illness, removal, or inability to act, until the Speaker’s successor is
    elected.”

    Article III, Section 2 of the state constitution clearly says that the speakers successor is elected in the 2010 org session:

    “Each house shall be the sole judge of the qualifications, elections, and returns of its members, and shall biennially choose its officers, including a permanent presiding officer selected from its membership, who shall be designated in the senate as President of the Senate, and in the house as Speaker of the House of Representatives”

    http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?PublicationType=Reference&CommitteeId=&Session=2009&DocumentType=The%20Rules%20Of%20The%20House%20of%20Representatives&FileName=2008%20-%202010%20House%20Rules.pdf